CVE-2025-23391
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in SUSE rancher allows a Restricted Administrator to change the password of Administrators and take over their accounts. This issue affects rancher: from 2.8.0 before 2.8.14, from 2.9.0 before 2.9.8, from 2.10.0 before 2.10.4.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThis is a privilege escalation vulnerability in SUSE Rancher where a Restricted Administrator (a role intended to have limited permissions) can change the password of full Administrator accounts, allowing complete account takeover. The vulnerability stems from incorrect privilege assignment in Ranche's role-based access control (RBAC) system that fails to properly restrict password modification privileges for lower-privileged users.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine Rancher server versionRun 'kubectl get globalsettings rancher-version -o jsonpath={.value}' in the Rancher management cluster, or check the UI under the gear icon > About RancherAffected if Version is earlier than 2.8.14, 2.9.8, or 2.10.4
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Verify presence of Restricted Administrator roleList users with the 'restricted-admin' cluster role binding or check for users assigned the restricted-admin role via 'kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o jsonpath="{.items[?(@.roleRef.name==\"restricted-admin\")].subjects}"'Affected if Any user is assigned the restricted-admin role
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Confirm existence of full Administrator accountsCheck for users with the 'admin' role or 'administrator' cluster role binding via 'kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o jsonpath="{.items[?(@.roleRef.name==\"admin\")].subjects}"'Affected if Full Administrator accounts exist in the system
Environment is affected if Rancher version is below 2.8.14/2.9.8/2.10.4 AND both Restricted Administrator users and full Administrator accounts coexist in the deployment.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scopedUpgrade Rancher to version 2.8.14, 2.9.8, or 2.10.4 or later. Immediately audit users with Restricted Administrator roles and consider revoking such privileges until the patch is applied.
2.8.14, 2.9.8, or 2.10.4 (choose the latest stable release for your major version branch)
- Identify your current Rancher version using the Rancher UI or CLI
- For Rancher 2.8.x: Upgrade to version 2.8.14 or later
- For Rancher 2.9.x: Upgrade to version 2.9.8 or later
- For Rancher 2.10.x: Upgrade to version 2.10.4 or later
- Backup your Rancher installation and etcd data before performing the upgrade
- Follow the standard Rancher upgrade documentation for your deployment method (Docker, Helm, or RKE)
- After upgrade, verify that Restricted Administrator users can no longer change Administrator passwords
- Confirm all users can authenticate with their existing credentials
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,504.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-23391 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-23391 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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